E-mu Emulator Sampler User Forum for the EIII EII EI and EIII XP

First of all, my EMuSer works fine, no issues with my EII. Second, the cable is fine as well. Third: It worked fine some days ago.

Now my problem is: when uploading a bank, the floppy works but no progress in EMXP yet. Then I get the following error: "Communication failure. the sampler doesn't give the expected SYSEX response. Response is 0 0 0 0 (or sometimes F0 7E 0 7D/F), Expected Response is F0 7E 0 7E. After this the EMAX becomes unresponsive to EMXP, meaing, when trying to upload another bank, it will not try to load software, but simply do nothing. When i turn it off and on is trying to load from disk for another time, then again no disk activity anymore. Loading from & saving to disk works fine

Tried with / without midi connection, other banks, cleaning contacts and so on. As well it will fail with a similar message when unloading sounds.

Ideas anyone?

Are you launching the application before you power up the Emax? I was having the same problem before I started following this start up sequence.

Never had any issues either way, but i'll try what you suggested, thanks!

You will probably have to try some other communication settings.
Especially the preferences that are underlined in the EMXP manual may need some change in specific situations, but also the PC RS422 port timeouts. If you would have ever changed any of these already, it would be a good idea to start from the default settings again (they are mentioned when you change a setting).

Thanks esynthesist. it was working great until i moved the emax in the studio. It did just with the standard settings. I did try with other settings and have seen that the suggestions are the default values. I tried with most settings, but no success. Since the reply always is 0 0 0 0, i think maybe there is sth. wrong with the cable, event though it is not old and all the soldering on the plugs is fine.

I tried some other start up sequences, but it stays the same :( The disk drives starts to load, but then aborts. After one attempt, i have to reboot the emax, to even get it to try loading... I tried many different settings, but as said it was working before. I will now try reseating chips. Any idea which chips could be the cause? Apart from this the Emax works totally fine...

Ok, so I had success a few times.I could repeat it with these settings:

09. - 17 / 10. - 250 / 11. - 1250 This would get it working every 9th time
09. - 25 / 10. - 250 / 11. - 1250 This would get it working every 5th time and then it worked continuously for 6 times until i quit EMXP. I opened it again and could only get it to work once. The settings are still the same. The strange thing is that it works sometimes and sometimes not with the same settings.

When trying to unload a bank, i also get error 1048. The Emax displays: "Aborted -bad ACK for Packet #0226"

Could someone point me in the right direction which settings to mess with or which one to change first? It really seems to be random and i tried a lot. Form time to time it works, but all in all it's one out of 50 tries. It even worked with "Maximum Retry Count for opening RSS 422 Port" set to 1000 the first time, then it didn't work 36 times afterwards, then again... I'm sitting here pressing 1,1,ent,ent for hours and am not getting futher... ???

PS: Midi & Midi unload work fine.

That's all very strange.
Did you change something at computer side ? Antivirus software (if it's one protecting serial ports) ?

Anyway, I think we should investigate this a bit more in detail - as far as this will be possible.
I will send you a special edition of EMXP which contains a logging feature.
Check your PM box.

So, good news and bad news. The EMuSer works fine with another Emax. I have so far tested everything on the computer side: driver, cables, firmware, other PC. So it comes down to the Emax itself. Midi works fine, so i guess the chip is ok. As said transfers work from time to time. What would be your suggestions to try next?

Hi

i'm having the same issue.
Emuser transfert won't work.
i'm getting the same message on the PC.
On the Emax i get Bad Ack for Packet #0000 wthen trying to do a midi transfert.
On the EMXP i get error 1048, the emax dosen't give the expected SYSEX, Response is 0 0 0 0, expected is F0 7E 0 7E

All transfert (EMUSER & MIDI in OSX via DSPQuattro) are failing with all Emax Os except with the original OSv3.2 via midi in DSPquattro.

Did you find what is could be the problem?
Best
K

With my Emax it definitely is the RS 422 port. It seems to be a cold solder joint. I will let you guys know once i have it back from repairs.

thank you.
i'm gonna look into that, but as midi transfer is also not working right, i'm gonna check the IC8 and the other ones around on mine, those are cheap part.

Hi
did the repair fix the problem?
i have changed the 6850, no luck, i'm gonna look onto other parts that might be responsible...
Best
K

The test by my repair guy showed that the RS422 port works just fine. Next step is to go there with the EMuSer. This really is a strange and annoying problem  :-\

I tested the IC4 at pin8 with a scope, the 500khrz is good, a firend of mine told me it could be the problem as it drive the UART with the 500. He told me it could be related to the IC5 and the IC30, IC2 on analog board is also linked to the UART.
i'm gonna look into those...

It is the IC at position 16 at least with my Emax. We shorted the data form the EMuSeR and got it to work. Now ordered a replacement and my Emax will be up and running again. Yay!

Thanks for letting us know.
Isn't that IC16 used for other purposes besides serial data communication as well (and didn't it cause other problems ?)

What do you mean with "shorted the data from the EMuSeR "?

i think i have the same problem with my Emax. By sending emuser data to emax, there is a short access to the floppy and then nothing happens anymore

just connected the pins form the chip inside the emuser directly to the chip inside the emax. i am not a tech and therefor can not tell you much on why it was done and what this really did...

Changing the IC16 didn't solve it for me.
I'm gonna look into other things.
Maybe the IC5 which set the midi off when RS422 is used is not acting right, or the IC2 controlling it.
Or it could be the IC20/IC15.